ATHENS — Georgia football is focused on the 2020 season, but beyond that, the Bulldogs will be putting plenty more players in the NFL via the 2021 draft.
Much of the offseason talk has been about graduate transfer quarterback Jamie Newman, who has been projected as a first-round pick.
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But Senior Bowl executive director and former NFL scout Jim Nagy says Georgia has another NFL prospect in the form of Tre’ McKitty, a graduate transfer tight end from Florida State.
”Former Florida State TE Tre’ McKitty caught 49 balls the past two years but he was still underused based off his talent, Nagy penned in a Tweet. “He’s an NFL guy.”
Georgia is hoping McKitty is an immediate contributor with departed senior tight ends Charlie Woerner and Eli Wolf headed for NFL training camps.
Wolf was a graduate transfer from Tennessee last season, and he stepped up and contributed more for Georgia in one season than he had been allowed in three previous years with the Vols.
UGA signed highly-rated high school product Darnell Washington, but it can take freshmen time to learn a new offense.
Particularly when there were no spring drills and the incoming freshman have not been able to work on football plays under the coaches’ supervision.
Redshirt sophomore John FitzPatrick is the leading returning pas catcher at the tight end position. He had just one catch last season that went for 22 yards against Murray State.
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The 6-foot-5, 245-pound McKitty, a 3-star signees for the Seminoles out of the IMG Academy, was also offered a scholarship by Georgia coming out of high school.
McKitty caught 23 passes for 241 yards last season. The season before, as s sophomore, McKitty had 26 catches for 256 yards.
Former UGA coach Mark Richt, who offered McKitty a scholarship at Miami, told DawgNation how impressed he is with the new Bulldogs’ transfer tight end.
“When we recruited McKitty at Miami, we thought he was a great player,” Richt said. “He’s very agile …. has got good ball skills, and he’s probably a better receiver than a blocker.
“But he’s a willing blocker, and he’s definitely a guy who can play.”
Former Florida State defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett, who saw McKitty each day in practice, the past two seasons, also spoke well of McKitty.
“Tre’ is the modern day tight end,” Barnett saod. “The modern day tight end is a guy that is not necessarily a great run blocker — he’s a position blocker — but he can run, and he can really catch.”
Georgia players are in the midst of voluntary workouts, which consist of no more than eight hours per week of supervised non-football training.
Kirby Smart and the UGA staff won’t be allowed to oversee training until July 15.
The Senior Bowl could play host to as many Georgia Bulldogs as it has had in quite some time with senior safety Richard LeCounte, senior middle linebacker Monty Rice, fifth-year senior Ben Cleveland and cornerback DJ Daniel all on the all-star game’s radar.
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